High School Test Prep

We heard from a number of folks during learning team meetings that you had some questions about how best to prepare for entrance tests to high schools. After checking in with one another, here's our best advice based on hearing back from girls in years past. For those girls that are taking the ISEE, everyone could benefit from sitting down and doing some practice tests, maybe one or two a week till the actual test date. You can order a practice test book online or find them at your local bookstore or library. For most girls, just getting their timed-test skills sharpened a bit will be all they need to do fine for the real thing. If you notice that her scores don't improve some with successive practice tests, you might also consider focused tutoring if you are able to.

For those who will be taking the math test for entrance to the Catholic schools, this is very much a basic skills and computation test. Again, some practice would be in order as some of the skills, like geometry and fractions, will feel a little "rusty" for the girls. While they "know" these math skills, they haven't used them extensively while learning algebra for the last couple of years so would benefit from working through some problems as well as from having it timed to get used to the pressure of a timed test.

Jeannette and Sarah in our admissions department have done a great job with the Next Schools program and are, of course, happy to answer any specific questions you have about your next steps. While we in the 8th grade have some experience with a few schools, we are not familiar enough with all of the high school options to be able to support you fully for either the process or evaluating competing choices. We are, however, happy to faithfully represent your dauhters' range of abilities in our high school recommendations (so remember to get them to us on time : >). Good luck with your tours and paperwork in the meantime!